Friday, November 6, 2015
Merkel Coalition Decides : Most Migrants Will Be Deported
Saturday politics is EU refugee politics this week. As of November 4, the EU had placed 116 refugees in member states, and only 1,418 places had been made available by just 14 member states. ~~~~~ So far this year 770,000 migrants have flooded into Balkan countries on EU borders, and into Greece and Italy inside the EU. Germany alone has taken more than 350,000 refugee status applicants this year. On September 23, European leaders agreed on a plan to relocate 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy. Six weeks later, according to the EU executive group - the European Commission (EC) - the EU has relocated just 116 of the 160,000 refugees, falling short of all their September commitments. The EC says few EU member states have responded to Serbian, Slovenian and Croatian requests to provide resources they need to cope with the situation overwhelming them. Only 10 member states have responded – Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, the UK and Romania. Many requested items have not been delivered, including essentials such as beds, blankets, protective clothing, first aid kits and water containers. ~~~~~ The EC says 700 children a day are now claiming asylum in the EU - more than 190,000 this year, according to the UN children's aid agency UNICEF. ~~~~~ An example of not being herded into Chancellor Merkel's EU/EC refugee program is Britain, which has pledged to take up to 4,000 vetted refugees a year from camps near Syria - small compared to unvetted hundreds of thousands planned by Germany and other EU nations. And, the UK will not take any refugees who arrive in Europe on their own accord. However, the UK has for years and is continuing to provide significant amounts of financial and humanitarian aid to camps near conflict zones in Syria. The UK says this is the best way to help Middle East refugees -- and many EU countries agree. ~~~~~ Nearly 200,000 people entered Croatia in October after Hungary closed its borders, and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, reported that more than 10,000 refugees were stranded in Serbia with little aid or food. EU member states had been asked on September 23 to notify the EC of assets able to be held ready to deploy to help refugees. At the time, only eight countries – Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Latvia – notified the EC, but they said they had limited civil protection assets or experts to deploy this year, should a request be made. ~~~~~ EC data also shows that many member states have failed to match EU funding for the UNHCR and the World Food Program. On September 23 and on October 15, they agreed €2.8 billion for refugee programs. But, just €500 million has been pledged, leaving a shortfall of €2.3 billion. EC President Jean-Claude Juncker says : “Noble words need to be followed by concrete actions back home.” ~~~~~ And, in what is bad news for migrants, BBC reported yesterday that Germany now has a plan to speed up the asylum process, after the governing coalition resolved a division on the issue. Chancellor Merkel said Germany would create up to five special centres for asylum-seekers deemed to have little chance of being given refugee status. Merkel, whose open door policy is widely criticized, said : "We took a good and important step forward." The five special centers will hold migrants from countries deemed safe; those barred from re-entering Germany; and those refusing to cooperate. An accelerated asylum process means cases can be heard in a week, and appeals will take only two more weeks. Most migrants can expect to be deported. Merkel also stressed the importance of tackling the reasons causing people to flee their countries and of securing the EU's external borders. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the cold light of reality has hit Merkel. Europe will apparently not be a dumping ground for Middle East migrants. The UN and the world must understand this, confront the refugee problem at home in the Middle East, AND handle German deportees, while halting the frenetic migrant march toward Europe.
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Has Merkel seen the cold light of reality as to what is best for not only Germany, but all of her beloved creation the EU. Or has she had a look into her future as Scrooge did in the "Christmas Carol" and didn't like what she saw if she continued promoting being the dumping ground for the largely unwanted migrants into EU financial & social dependency?
ReplyDeleteFor ALL her faults Merkel did not get to where she is today by turning a deaf ear to the political winds.
Over the past 25 years, the major preoccupation of foreign-policy elites has been to forge a new grand strategy for the United States and Europe. Scholars and practitioners tend to see a foreign policy adrift after the fall of the Soviet Union, when containment of Soviet expansion became obsolete overnight. Seeing no major ideological or military rival, some believed the Owl of Minerva had taken flight, and that the end of history had reduced the need for strategic thinking. That line of fantasy thinking came crashing down along with two big towers 14 years ago this past September 11th. Again, foreign-policy elites searched for a new strategy, this time for the age of Islamic terror.
ReplyDeleteCircumstances do change, and foreign policy, often a matter of prudence, must change with them to achieve the same ends. Too often, however, the search for a new strategy simply becomes the search for something ‘new’. This way of thinking carries a hint of disdain for the principles and traditions of our past—and disdaining those principles and traditions is a mistake. When the makers of breakfast cereals roll out a new product, after all, they say it’s “new and improved,” because the former doesn’t necessarily imply the latter. Likewise, every new and fashionable idea isn’t necessarily an improvement. As we have seen here in the United States and as the EU is coming to grips with now as the fallacies of their radicle move to the far left political and their dictatorial control over countries (with vastly) different & opposing social past.
As we structure our future with new strategies we would all be well served to consider the past and their old truths. We (every country) have a duty to be true to our beliefs, to use our great power wisely on behalf of freedom, guided by legitimate principle.
Interesting there seems to be no discussion over the stalemate between France and Great Britain over how to finally handle the crisis in Calais. You can't avoid processing asylum claims indefinitely. Far better to process and deport those who have no legitimacy.
ReplyDeleteThere was any mention of the Roma population of France. Many are born and raised there yet denied French citizenship. France periodically rounds them up, gives them 80 Euros and puts them on buses to Romania. But since they're not technically Romanian either (some don't even speak the language) most just beg enough to get back to France.
What's extremely distressing in the whole affair is how many concessions EU is ready to make to Turkey in order to persuade them to process and accept asylum claims faster, hoping to stem the tide seeking to enter Europe. Smuggling has always been a viable trade in Turkey, whether it was drugs or human trafficking (formerly forced prostitution and now refugees). I don't see anyone seriously considering hemming in that business. Erdogan is facing very stiff opposition in next month’s election, and if he comes home with a big European prize it could go very badly for the Kurds and by extension our efforts in Syria, and not do a thing to stop the smugglers.
They are imported, deported, too few, too many, sent from one country to another, told where to live, etc., etc.. Tell me friends if you were displaced in a time of great peril and upheaval in your country of birth (and that of your children) wouldn’t you appreciate if the leaders that were determining your life have some concern and fore thought about what they could do, can do, even wanted to do for you or with you in a new country welcome you?
ReplyDeleteAngela Merkel and her band of progressive socialists never gave one though about the fact that at the receiving end of their ill-conceived plans were actual people vs. cameras and reporters pumping up her political standing.
All immigration/migration needs to be stopped until our “leaders” get a handle on the problem and workable solution – ALL in every country.
Send aide and guarantee its delivery to those who need (not just dumped on a loading dock someplace) it in countries such as Syria, Sudan, and Afghanistan, etc. – not those thieves that will sell on the black markets well intention supplies and food stuff.
‘The dilemma of these (possible) expatriate souls is a worldwide problem, but the notable problem is the motives, the humanity, and the resolve of these ‘world leaders’ stumbling around in the darkness of leadership.
I am pro legal immigration that helps solve the labor needs of my country. I am all for scavenging the cream of the crop of talented, educated, trained, productive labor pool when it’s a fit between the individual and needs of the new country.
ReplyDeleteI am not open to taking in non-productive people who for one reason or another are simply will simply become a drain on my countries health care system, welfare system, individuals who may well bring their gang lawlessness to my shores, disguised soldiers of a war machine that wish to destroy my country via my act of goodness.
I am very open to aiding these ransacked and vandalized people within their own country so long as there is effort on their part to improve their country. “Luck is nothing more than opportunity taken advantage of” as someone once said. So let’s give the migrants some “luck” and see what they do with it.
239 years ago my Fore-Fathers had some luck … ships that carried all they had in this world that brought them to a new world that offered raw opportunity and look what a determined will created – the United States of America.
Merkel plays the game and plays with peoples lives as if she has all the answers. Well for these migrants that were promised this and that, and everything in-between, I guess she didn't - did she?
ReplyDeleteNow its send them back to a land they opted to escape, their hopes and dreams of possibly a new start gone, because Ms. Merkel didn't line up all the ducks in a row, and didn't ever understand the enormity of the problems and cost that came along as required baggage.